Aspen Peak - Niche Media - Aspen living at its peak
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ILLUSTRATION BY DANIEL O'LEARY How can a writer visit Aspen and not think of Hunter S. Thompson? Although, I should admit, for me the gonzo journalist was brought to mind through a little bit of hap- penstance. Arriving on the last f light into town last year under a big, low autumn moon and going out for a late walk, I was drawn to the stunning old-time architecture and late- night glow of the Hotel Jerome (whose bar, beyond its elegance, had the virtue of being one of two with kitchens still open at that hour). The bartender, sizing me up easily enough, took my bourbon order before pointing to an empty table by the window: "That's where Thompson sat every night while running for sheriff." Ready, he added, to receive all visitors. Still, as I would later learn, Thompson stood as only one in a long line of lyrical figures, from Mortimer Adler to Jack Nicholson, who populated the hotel's barroom over the years. Of course, such figures and their stories might now be considered vestiges of the past. The architectural bones of those ram- bling times might remain, but the cultural f lesh has changed. Yet in this regard Thompson is only more intriguing—and perhaps even more present—as he repre- sents a kind of cultural history that still seems embedded in the physical landscape of Aspen. True enough, back in my New York, you may well visit, say, the White Horse Tavern to seek out the vagrant spirit of Dylan Thomas, or the Algonquin for traces of "The Vicious Circle," but the vibra- tions are not so fresh, and certainly not so immediately ingrained in the fiber of the place. Consider how central planks of Thompson's candidacy included tearing up the pavement to make dirt roads and issuing fishing licenses only to the locals—who, if they wished, could sponsor visitors, only if they agreed to be responsible for their actions—and one hears strong echoes of today's environmental concerns that are only more resonant under the constant duress of development in the West. Thompson's dirt-road idea brings to mind the question of what might now qualify as "authentic" in a landscape already so trans- formed—or, more specifically, in a small mountain city whose community and civic structures were buffeted by the Great Depression and the end of the mining era, only to have its architecture "restored" as part of a larger effort to bring other, outside cultures into its fold. Here, I think of The Aspen Institute and its remarkable genesis during the postwar era, weaving into the fab- ric of Aspen a thread of high culture. Along with the extant counterculture of the Thompson era and before, this new mind-set engaged in an unexpected dialogue with our town's commercialization and the backdrop of its vast wilderness. Such paradoxes cer- tainly continue to draw artists of every generation to Aspen. The very name prompts great curiosity. And with the newly minted art museum, the platforms for debate, and the mountainous panorama setting one's imagi- nation in motion, you have a cultural mecca on your hands—with stories out of the past set to make new ones in turn. AP Remembrance of Town Past for Art MuseuM Writer-in-residence Tim Griffin, Aspen is the lAnd of beAutiful pArAdox. 216 aspenpeak-magazine.com Aspen inspired...